A total of 63 candidates entered on Wednesday officially the race to be elected as one of the six Cypriot Members of the European Parliament at the June 9 European Elections.

After the completion of the official submission procedure which took place at "Filoxenia" conference centre, in Nicosia, the Chief Returning Officer, Elikkos Elia, announced that 61 out of 63 candidates are running with the backing of political parties and two are independent candidates.

He added that three Turkish Cypriot citizens are among the 63 candidates this year. As per the gender of the candidates, he said that 45 of them or 71% are men and 18 or 29% are women.

The Chief Returning Officer said that the procedure was successful and was completed without any problems.

He confirmed reports about a woman wishing to be a candidate without being registered in the electoral rolls.

"We reviewed her request and she agreed that she could not have had registered as a candidate, after the procedure was explained to her," he noted.

According to the Elections Act in Cyprus, any objections should be submitted to the Chief Returning Officer within 24 hours from the completion of the submission process, which sets the deadline on 12:30 pm on Thursday.

Elia explained that, if there is not objection for any of the 63 candidates, all of them will be included in the ballot. Objections will be reviewed as quickly as possible.

The Chief Returning Officer also announced that a draft ballot will be presented to all candidates on Thursday for comments. Once finalised, the ballots will be printed. 

Elia concluded inviting the voters to seize the opportunity to elect their representatives on June 9, both for the European Parliament and local authorities.